Big thank-you to Lindsey Scharmyn for inviting me over to her RogueWays podcast for a discussion of stars, myths, bats, holograms, Scylla, Charybdis, and everything in between!
Welcome to any new visitors hearing about my work for the first time as a result of this interview -- and of course to all returning friends!
The interview was recorded -- and broadcast live -- on 30 May 2021.
Lindsey really brings a special energy and insightful questions to the conversation, and I hope you will enjoy all the facets and angles of the ancient myths that this interaction brought to light. During the podcast, I shared some visuals relating to a well-known story in the ancient text of Genesis -- and demonstrating recurring patterns in some of the sacred traditions of ancient India and elsewhere, some of which you may not have previously heard me discuss on any podcast.
As I mention at the conclusion of our interview, my blog now has well over 1,300 posts, and it is fully searchable -- so you can look for keywords such as "Krishna" or "Odysseus" or "Eve" or "Kuhn" or "bat."
A few previous posts which touch upon some of the topics we explore in this conversation include:
And there are many more which you can find for yourself using various keyword searches to sort through previous posts.
Please give Lindsey some positive feedback and support and of course feel free to share this conversation with anyone for whom these subjects could have a positive effect.
Thank you for watching, and hope to see you again soon!
Special thank-you to Judith Kwoba for inviting me back to Nightflight for another thought-provoking conversation, this time on the subject of the mighty Trojan War and the ancient epic, the Iliad!
Welcome to any new visitors hearing about my work for the first time -- and of course to returning friends.
In this episode, we discuss some (but by no means all) of the overwhelming evidence which points to the conclusion that the story of the Trojan War, as recorded in the Iliad, is based on celestial metaphor from start to finish -- in common with ancient myth from around the globe, including not just the mythology of ancient Greece but also ancient Egypt, ancient Mesopotamia, ancient India, ancient China and Japan, and the myths and sacred stories of other cultures from every inhabited continent and island of our Earth: Africa, Australia, the Americas, western Europe, northern Europe, other parts of Asia, the stories in the Bible, and the sacred traditions of the cultures spread across islands of the vast Pacific.
This conversation was recorded on 16 May, 2021.
Previous conversations with Judith on Nightflight can be found in the "podcasts" section of my website. Here are two from 2020:
I hope you will enjoy this discussion of some of the celestial and esoteric aspects of the story of the Trojan War. Please give Judith some positive feedback -- and support independent media and podcasts as much as you can!
Also, at around the 0:09:00-minute mark in the video, Judith notes that she understands the god Ea of ancient Babylon and Assyria (known as Enki to the Sumerians) to be associated with Aquarius, and understands Aquarius to be associated with Troy, and asks if that is a good jumping-off point for our discussion. I may not have answered that as clearly as I could have -- but in the conversation leading up to that question, I had just been providing some evidence of a connection between figures associated with the constellations Aquarius and figures associated with the constellation Ophiuchus in this ancient system of celestial metaphor. In my 2019 book The Ancient World-Wide System, I show that the god Enki / Ea can be confidently associated with the constellation Ophiuchus. And, as discussed in this video, the hero Hector of Troy can also be associated with Ophiuchus. Hector's arch-rival Achilles, however, can be associated with the figure of Aquarius, a constellation often associated with figures described as a "swift runner" in the Iliad -- as well as in many other myths of ancient Greece (as well as with running figures in the Bible). As I show in the video, and discuss at greater length in my 2016 book Star Myths of the World, Volume Two (Myths of Ancient Greece), the city of Troy itself can be confidently identified with the Great Square of Pegasus -- located in the sky not far from Aquarius.
Thank you for visiting and hope to see you again soon -- please feel free to peruse all the content in the past blog posts (now well over 1,300 in number), previous videos (now numbering over 150 -- you can find these in the "videos" section of the website, as well as on my YouTube channel here), the "resources" section of the website, the many previous podcasts in the archive, and of course my books which now total over 5,000 pages and even so have really only barely scratched the surface of the world's ancient myths and the overwhelming evidence which shows that they are built upon a common system of celestial metaphor.
The truth is up there . . . and the truth will prevail!
As I publish this post pointing to this video, the Moon is going through one of the more spectacular total lunar eclipses I've seen -- while squarely within the "multiple heads" of the glorious constellation Scorpio. As you will see, the constellation Scorpio features prominently in this video.
Above towers the powerful shape of the mythologically-important constellation Ophiuchus. The Milky Way stretches up and across the sky beside Ophiuchus and through Scorpio, and you will see the Milky Way playing a central role in the discussion in the video as well.
This video's examination of the literalist doctrines of eternal damnation and endless torment in the fires of hell was inspired by a sign which I saw while driving through the "blue highways" of southern Oregon on my way to the Scablands trip (described in preceding posts):
And, as the video explains, this sign is obviously using the threat (still deeply ingrained in our consciousness, absorbed from the wider culture within which we live and move from childhood) of condemnation in hellfire for ever and ever after death -- a literalist dogma still taught today and still used as a motivation to mentally coerce acceptance of literalist teachings and belief (as well as to coerce rejection of traditional sacred ways inherited from generations and generations of ancestors, among those cultures which have not long ago been converted to literalist Christian ways).
But as the video explores briefly, and as my analysis over the past decade and more has found, the texts of the books we call the Bible show at every turn that they are built upon the same system of celestial metaphor which forms the foundation for the ancient myths and sacred stories around the globe. Their stories and symbolism reflect specific constellations and heavenly figures in our night sky -- very strong evidence that they are metaphorical in nature, and not literal
When we try to force a literal reading upon these ancient sacred texts, we do not honor them but rather dishonor them, and invite misinterpretation and in fact the downright inversion of their profound message for our lives.
The literalist teaching which threatens eternal punishment in the fires of hell for "the lost" provides a powerful example of just this kind of inversion of the ancient message. It is a doctrine which is undeniably designed to inflict mental anguish, discomfort, and trauma upon men and women -- to say nothing of the effects of describing such threatening visions to children.
The doctrine of "eternal condemnation and torment in hell after death for the lost" is no fringe teaching in the literalist Christian project: it is in fact a central doctrine, standing behind the literalist arguments that everyone should be urged to accept their literalist interpretations (mis-interpretations) of the biblical scriptures.
And yet this trauma-inducing literalist teaching is gravely mistaken.
The stories of the Bible can be shown to be built upon celestial metaphor, from first to last and from Genesis all the way to the Revelation of John. The story of Adam and Eve and the Serpent, upon which many literalist theologians rely for "justification" of the threat of condemnation and eternal torment, can be shown to be celestial metaphor -- as can many of the images and phrases describing "hell" or Hades in the ancient biblical scriptures.
Indeed, the pattern of these celestial metaphors associated with hell in the Bible give us a strong indication of the actual location of hell -- and it may be (just as Alvin Boyd Kuhn argued more than 80 years ago) that we are in it right now, in this incarnate life, this "lower realm" through which we presently sojourn (in these bodies metaphorically said to be composed of the lower two elements of earth and water, aka "clay").
Alvin Boyd Kuhn disgustedly declared that the literalist misinterpretation of the Bible's metaphorical descriptions of hell constitute "an unconscionable distortion" and an "outrageous delusion" and wrote that: "The perversion of original teaching regarding the lower fire has cast over the collective mind of the western world the foulest hypnotic obsession which it has ever suffered" and that this suffocating doctrine of hell has "compressed the spiritual genius of that segment of mankind [i.e., the Christianized segment] into the coldest and most inhuman bigotry known to history."
This video explores just a few of the celestial metaphors in the scriptures which suggest that the biblical concept of hell is metaphorical -- indeed, that it is esoteric metaphor, designed to teach us something very different from what we might think based on the concepts of literal hell which remain current in the popular consciousness right up to the present day.
I hope that the information and analysis in this video will be a blessing to you in some way.
Randall pointing out the cataclysmic geological features at Dry Falls, 03 May 2021. Photograph: David Mathisen
Here is a photo montage from the amazing Contact at the Cabin event organized by the podcasting teams of the Brothers of the Serpent Podcast and the Grimerica Show, featuring Randall Carlson and Brad Young of Kosmographia, with Star Myth discussions and night-sky "star tours" presented by me, David Mathisen.
You can find many resources related to Randall's arguments about catastrophic flooding and the Younger Dryas Impact Theory at the Kosmographia website linked above, including the video linked here featuring Graham Hancock and Randall discussing geology in the vicinity of Soap Lake, Washington -- and its possible implications for humanity's ancient history.
Below I have embedded a short video which Ban Van Kerkwyck of UnchartedX made using footage from our expedition earlier this month:
And below are more images from this unforgettable trip to the absolutely stunning terrain of central Washington and the testimony that this region of the "Channelled Scablands" silently proclaims regarding cataclysmic events in our planet's ancient past. Most photos were taken by me, except where indicated.
Vista point with Mount Shasta, on the drive north, 02 May 2021.
Driving through Weed, California, 02 May 2021.
Gathering in the town of Soap Lake, 03 May 2021.
On the road up to Dry Falls, Randall and sunset, 03 May 2021. Image credit: unknown but probably Snake Bros or Alex FlavorTown.
More from Dry Falls and Lower Grand Coulee, 03 May 2021.
Dry Falls, 03 May 2021. Image credit: Brad Young.
The bridge at Riverside State Park, Bowl and Pitcher rocks, 04 May 2021.
04 May 2021
04 May 2021.
Driving through rolling landscapes of loess, 04 May 2021.
The Rolling Palouse, seen from Steptoe Butte, looking down on the fields of loess, 04 May 2021.
One of the Drumheller Channels, 05 May 2021.
Taking a leap into the Drumheller Channels, 05 May 2021. Video credit: Brad?
Palouse Falls, 05 May 2021.
Video footage of Palouse Falls, 05 May 2021.
Downstream view from Palouse Falls, 05 May 2021.
Darren from Grimerica looking down at the catastrophic geology of Potholes Cataract, 06 May 2021.
Looking "downstream" at Potholes Cataract towards the "blade" of rock separating the mighty alcoves, 06 May 2021.
Standing on the "blade" at Potholes Cataract (can you see me?). Image credit: Dom.
Standing atop Steamboat Rock in Dry Falls Cataract, 07 May 2021.
Coming back down from Steamboat Rock (Steamboat Rock seen in the background), 07 May 2021.
With Randall at Dry Falls Cataract, with a flying bird, 07 May 2021.
During the fantastic week spent in the Scablands from 01 May to 08 May 2021, with geological expeditions led by Randall Carlson and Brad Young, as well as Star Myth discussions and laser-guided star-gazing led by Yours Truly, all sponsored and organized by the members of the Brothers of the Serpent and Grimerica Show podcasts, those of us on the tour had occasion to explore the evidence of catastrophic events on our planet which may have been linked to massive cometary or meteoric impacts upon the North American ice sheets some 12,000 to 13,000 years ago, and which may have also included fragments which flew close enough to the sun to cause increased solar ejections and radiation, with devastating effect upon human life and society at that time.
These catastrophes may well have played a decisive role in the destruction of earth's ancient predecessor cultures which existed prior to 10,000 BC -- predecessor cultures which may have achieved tremendous levels of sophistication, both spiritual and technological. The existence of such predecessor cultures is amply supported by archaeological and megalithic evidence found literally around our globe -- as well as by the undeniable evidence of a common system of celestial metaphor which can be shown to be operating as the foundation for the world's ancient myths and scriptures from cultures worldwide, and which can already be seen to be fully developed in the earliest extant texts we know of from the civilizations of ancient Egypt, ancient Mesopotamia, and ancient India (thus indicating an origin which precedes all these oldest known cultures).
During the week, I had the opportunity to meet and spend some time with the brilliant documentary film-maker Ben van Kerkwyk of UnchartedX. If you have not yet viewed his extensive collection of video documentaries, you are in for a treat! I have embedded two representative videos here to get you started.
In that video, Ben examines the evidence that finely-crafted stone jars, vases, and bowls discovered in Egypt display clear signs of precision machining and the use of high-powered lathes, not possible to create using hand tools or even manually-powered wheels (including those turned using a strong bow)!
As part of that examination, Ben draws on the analysis which was begun by the famous English Egyptologist William Flinders Petrie (1853 - 1942), who perceived that some of these artifacts, fashioned out of extremely hard stone, must have been made with "a true turning" using a lathe and could not have been produced by rubbing with abrasives, as there are bowls and fragments in which Petrie perceived that a bowl had been "knocked off its centring, recentred imperfectly, and the old turning not quite turned out," resulting in "two surfaces belonging to different centring, and meeting in a cusp" (see discussion around 17:38 in the above video).
To put this observation into perspective, Ben notes at approximately 15:38 in the video that:
The great pioneering Egyptologist Flinders Petrie was the first to truly analyze the mechanical methods involved in the creation of such objects. When we speak of Petrie, bear in mind that our own mechanical industry in our civilization was only in its infancy during his time, which was around the mid-nineteenth century and into the early twentieth. It was only at this point, roughly a hundred and fifty years ago, that our civilization had developed enough capability to put these artifacts into context and begin trying to understand the technology that these artifacts represent. If that fact doesn't mess with your noodle a little bit, I really don't know what would.
The implications of Petrie's observations, published almost 140 years ago in 1883, have yet to be fully explored by conventional academics, and remain largely unknown to the general public -- but they clearly demonstrate that our current understanding of human history is gravely flawed and in need of radical revision. You can find the entire volume of Flinders Petrie's Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh (1883) online at archive.org.
Ben then brings in the contemporary analysis of author and researcher Christopher Dunn, a manufacturing engineer with fifty years of experience, primarily in the aerospace industry. Chris Dunn's website can be found at Gizapower.com. Ben cites analysis from Chris Dunn showing that some of the machining found on certain fragments could not have been produced by manually-powered machinery but rather suggest some type of high-powered rotating tools.
Ben shows that the evidence points to the conclusion that these and other high-precision, finely-machined artifacts found in Egypt are actually pre-dynastic, and may have been prized and revered by the dynastic Egyptians themselves as remnants of an even more ancient predecessor culture. This conclusion absolutely rocks the conventional historical paradigm to its foundations -- and explains the reluctance of conventional Egyptology and conventional academia to apply rigorous analysis to the artifacts which Ben is describing and showing in his videos.
These and other videos, along with the ongoing work of Chris Dunn and other contemporary researchers examining evidence both newly-uncovered and long-since-discovered, provide powerful archaeological arguments for the existence of a predecessor culture which predates the earliest civilizations recognized by conventional historians -- a culture with technological capabilities so advanced that humanity only developed to the point of being able to appreciate them within the past 150 years, and may still not have developed to the point where we can easily duplicate them.
It was an honor to meet and get to have some conversations with Ben this week while exploring the catastrophic geology of North America. I look forward to future events with him and hope you will check out and consider supporting his work.
Below is a photograph of me and Ben along with Russ of the Brothers of the Serpent podcast, atop one of the enormous boulders above the Spokane River, at Riverside State Park and the "Bowl and Pitcher" trail. For perspective on the tremendous size of these great rocks, see for example these photographs on Wikimedia Commons, such as this one in which a person can be observed sitting on top of a boulder on the left side of the image, and this one in which two standing persons can be observed on top of a boulder on the right side of the image.
I've just returned from an incredible event, 20 years in the making, exploring the Channeled Scablands region of Washington State with Randall Carlson and friends.
Randall has been researching this vast geological complex for years, piecing together the undeniable evidence of catastrophic flooding which may be linked to the impact of massive fragments from a comet or meteor into the ice sheets that gripped North America around 12,000 to 13,000 years ago.
This event, which may also have sent fragments into the sun itself, initiating deadly solar outbursts, may well be linked to the destruction of an extremely sophisticated ancient culture (or cultures) now all but completely forgotten, and whose existence is proclaimed by archaeological evidence around the world, as well as by the evidence that virtually every culture on our planet, from every inhabited continent and island, preserves ancient wisdom in the form of sacred stories and sacred scriptures which all use the very same profound world-wide system of celestial metaphor.
It was an honor to be part of this unforgettable expedition, which was organized by the podcast teams at The Grimerica Show and the Brothers of the Serpent, and most of all by the heroic efforts of Brad Young, who has been exploring this region with Randall for decades.
It was equally an honor to meet everyone who came to this event and to interact on a host of widely-varied topics discussion. We had the opportunity to go out and look at stars underneath the cold Washington sky on different nights and observe some of the patterns which connect the ancient myths, scriptures and sacred stories of all cultures.
This world-wide connection, supported by abundant evidence, predates the earliest extant texts we have from the cultures of Mesopotamia and dynastic Egypt, and comes alongside the overwhelming archaeological evidence which points to the existence of some now-forgotten culture or cultures in humanity's ancient history. Conventional academia continues to pointedly ignore this powerful evidence, even as it continues to pile up with each new discovery.
The overwhelming evidence of catastrophe in the distant past may well play an integral part of this story, and the breathtaking geology of central Washington's Scablands seems to testify as witness to whatever catastrophe may have severed us from our more distant predecessors.
I hope that you will have an opportunity to take part in one of these amazing events in the future, if at all possible!
Here's a new video I've just published entitled "Ophiuchus Lights sighted over Utah?" in which I describe and attempt to diagram some of the unusual lights observed during the "Contact at the Canyons" event at Bryce Canyon and Zion Canyon National Parks during April 2021.
In the video, I explain that during my many years of observing the night sky, I have on occasion seen things which I cannot explain, such as the "purple flash" which I described in a video from May of 2020 entitled "Vasishtha and Arundhati (and a purple flash)" and in an accompanying blog post here.
However, although I wasn't expecting it in any way, all of us in the group at this year's Contact at the Canyons experience witnessed some things in the sky which are very different than anything I've ever previously encountered or seen. The above video attempts to document some of that.
During the event itself, the podcasting teams of Grimerica and the Brothers of the Serpent also recorded an "open mike" podcast in which guests at Contact at the Canyons could talk to Graham of Grimerica (who was stuck in Canada) and send him good vibes -- and many of them described in their own words some of the things we saw in the sky which are unusual and at this point unexplained.
You can download or listen to that episode, Grimerica #489, from the webpage here.
The video above also describes how the leaders of the Contact at the Canyons event, including myself, serendipitously met up with Marty Garza in Las Vegas prior to the start of weekend. Marty is a thorough researcher of the many facets of the UFO phenomenon and has appeared in a four-part series on Brothers of the Serpent to discuss his research and his analysis.
You can give those episodes a listen using the links below:
There were some very intriguing aspects to the phenomena we observed on two separate occasions during this year's Utah trip. I hope you will enjoy the video -- and I hope you will have the opportunity to observe the night sky from some of our nation's spectacular National Parks at some point in the future, if at all possible.
